Green Rebel Marine will undertake a geophysical survey campaign for an offshore wind farm in the North Celtic Sea from next Tuesday 29 March to the end of May, weather permitting.

The survey will be conducted on a 24-hour basis by the Roman Rebel (callsign 2ICA5), which will display appropriate lights and signals.

The survey will utilise multibeam echo sounders, sub-bottom profilers, side-scan sonars, magnetometers and ultra-high-resolution survey equipment, both hull-mounted and towed.

Typically, the towed cable lengths will be about four times the water depth while acquiring survey data.

Mariners are advised to keep continuous watch on VHF Channel 16 when navigating the areas of operation, coordinates of which are detailed in Marine Notice No 16 of 2022 attached below.

All vessels operating in the vicinity of these operations are requested to keep their distance and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash.

The latest Marine Notice from the Irish Maritime Administration notes that as of 00:01am on Sunday 6 March, the COVID-19 travel requirements set out in SI No 45 of 2021 and SI No 135 of 2021 have been revoked by the Department of Health.

This means that there is no longer a requirement for any person travelling to Ireland to have:

• a completed passenger locator form;
• evidence of having been fully vaccinated;
• evidence of recovery from COVID-19; or
• evidence of a negative/not-detected result from a RT-PCR/Antigen test.

The department requests that all port authorities take note of this change and remove any signage associated with such requirements.

Passenger ferry operators are also requested to remove any signage related to the above restrictions from onboard vessels, to update their websites accordingly and to advise passengers scheduled to travel in the short term of the changes to travel requirements.

Queries in relation to this Marine Notice can be addressed to [email protected].

Marine Notice 16 of 2021 is withdrawn.

Marine Notice No 14 of 2022 advises that the Department of Transport has published a new revision of its Code of Practice for Small Fishing Vessels.

The Code of Practice sets the standards of safety and protection for all persons on board small fishing vessels, of less than 15 metres length overall, which are required to have a sea-fishing boat licence.

It is based on the voluntary instruments on safety at sea, jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The new revision refreshes the presentation of the previous revision, updates its references to legislation and Marine Notices and incorporates many safety improvements which have been derived from recommendations of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board, as well as from the department’s Maritime Safety Strategy (2015) and the Report of the Working Group on Safety, Training & Employment in the Irish Fishing Industry (2015).

Finally, the new revision has taken into account the responses that were received to the public consultation on the draft Code of Practice, which took place in November-December 2021.

The Code of Practice is available from the Department of Transport website. Alternatively, you may request either an electronic or printed copy by sending an email to [email protected].

The most recent listing of the approved Panel of Surveyors and their contact details is available from the department’s website, and also in Marine Notice No 01 of 2021, or from the Marine Survey Office at [email protected].

The Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) at University College Dublin will undertake its InStor survey to acquire data for leakage monitoring for carbon capture and storage in the North Celtic Sea next month.

Supporting ongoing research at iCRAG, the survey’s aim “is to investigate and characterise the existing seabed morphologies which are related to passive and active seepage of fluids, such as pockmarks and mounds, and to provide new high-resolution geophysical datasets along with geochemical data, which will be used to create an integrated baseline geological model and form the basis for understanding the current status of complex processes in the survey area.”

Weather depending, the survey will be carried out between 19 and 26 March by the RV Celtic Voyager (callsign EIQN) which will display appropriate lights and signals. Work will be performed in accordance with safe operating practices regarding MMO procedures and cognisant of fishing gear.

Coordinates of the survey area as well as contact details are included in Marine Notice No 13 of 2022, which is attached below.

The third leg of this year’s Irish Anglerfish and Megrim Survey (IAMS 2022) will be carried out from Wednesday 13 to Friday 22 April.

Following this month’s surveys off the West, Southwest and South coasts, as previously reported on Afloat.ie, leg three will be conducted to the North and North West coast of Ireland by the Marine Institute in fulfilment of Ireland’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) obligations.

The demersal trawl survey will consist of some 50 otter trawls each of 60 minutes’ duration in ICES area 6.a, conducted by the RV Celtic Explorer (callsign EIGB).

The vessel will be towing a Jackson demersal trawl during fishing operations and will display appropriate light and signals.

Maps and coordinates of the survey area can be found in Marine Notice No 12 of 2022, attached below.

INFOMAR will conduct a programme of hydrographic and geophysical surveys in the Celtic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea and western coastal areas between March and November this year.

Covering some 125,000sqkm of underwater territory, INFOMAR (Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland’s Marine Resource) aims to produce integrated mapping products covering the physical, chemical and biological features of the seabed.

Along the lines of last year’s surveys, the 2022 operation will involve research vessels from Geological Survey Ireland (Keary, Geo, Lir, Galtee and Mallet) and the Marine Institute (Celtic Voyager and either the Celtic Explorer or the new RV Tom Crean) in a variety of surveys.

All vessels will display appropriate lights and markers, and will be listening on VHF Channel 16 throughout the course of the survey.

The Marine Institute vessels will also each be towing a magnetometer sensor with a single cable of up to 200 metres in length, and a moving vessel profiler cable of variable length up to a maximum of 200 metres.

Further details — including coordinates, maps and contact information — can be found in Marine Notice No 11 of 2022 which is attached below.

Marine Notice 37 of 2021 advised of the deployment of one floating lidar buoy and two wave buoys at the Dublin Array offshore wind farm on the Bray and Kish Banks.

The Department of Transport has now been advised by Partrac Ltd that all three Metocean buoys are scheduled to be serviced soon over a period of two days.

Weather permitting, it is expected that the two wave buoys will be recovered and redeployed in the three-week period between tomorrow, Friday 11 February and Friday 4 March.

The floating lidar buoy will be towed from its location on Bray Bank to Wicklow Harbour for routine maintenance overnight and towed back to Bray Bank for redeployment in its current position. This recovery and redeployment will take place in the three-week period between Thursday 24 February 2022 and Friday 18 March.

The AMS Retriever (callsign MEHI8) will recover and redeploy all three buoys. The floating lidar buoy will be towed some 30 metres astern of the AMS Retriever at a maximum speed of 3.5 knots.

During this time, the vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre. As such, vessels operating within this area are requested to keep their distance, maintaining a safety zone around the deployment vessel, and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash.

Radio transmissions will be conducted with VTS and other seafarers to notify them of the buoy operations.

Coordinates of the buoy locations and contact details can be found in Marine Notice No 10 of 2022, attached below.

Geophysical survey works as part of a scientific data-gathering exercise for the Lir Offshore Array are set to begin this week.

Survey company Ondine will be carrying out these works from Wednesday 9 February until the end of April, weather permitting, in the Irish Sea roughly offshore of South Louth, Meath and North Fingal.

A research vessel, DP1 Kommandor Iona (callsign GAAK) will be used to carry out the work on a 24/7 basis. The vessel will be towing geophysical equipment during operations and the vessel will be restricted in its ability to manoeuvre.

Coordinates and maps of the survey area are included in Marine Notice No 09 of 2022, which can be found attached below.

All other vessels operating within this area are requested to keep their distance and pass at minimum speed to reduce vessel wash. Radio transmissions will be conducted with other seafarers to notify them of the operations.

TechWorks Marine plans to deploy four trawl-resistant bottom mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) frames in Castlemaine and Valentia off the coast of Co Kerry from this Monday 7 February.

Weather permitting, the Ocean Navigator (callsign EI018) will deploy the four trawl-resistant, bottom-mounted ADCPs frames — each of around one square metre in area — on the seabed for a minimum of one month and a maximum of two months, between this week and Monday 21 February.

They will be used to carry out water quality sampling surveys as well as vessel-mounted ADCP surveys at the same time as the deployments and these are tide and weather dependent and may cause a slight delay in the recovery of the seabed frames.

The ADCPs will be measuring currents through the water column at each location over the course of their month-long deployment. This data will be used to validate a hydrodynamic model being developed of the area for Irish Water.

There will be no surface marker during the extent of deployment so vessel traffic will not need to avoid the area but should be aware of its presence. Throughout operations, the Ocean Navigator will be displaying appropriate lights and shapes.

Details of the exact locations of the ADCP frames and other information for mariners are included in Marine Notice No 08 of 2022, which can be downloaded below.

The Department of Transport has issued a reminder of a number of Marine Notices regarding safety at sea, following the recommendations of a report into a fatal incident involving a fishing boat near Galway city 15 months ago.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, 37-year-old Tom Oliver — a relative of the Olivers who rescued two paddle boarders in Galway Bay in August 2020 — died after he became entangled in gear and was dragged over the stern of the six-metre fishing vessel Myia on 2 November 2020.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report into the incident found that the weather deteriorated “significantly” after the FV Myia left harbour that day.

It added that “violent movements” generated by the worsening sea conditions while feeding out shrimp pots may have been a contributory factor.

But it also found that the use of a mobile phone to make a distress call — instead of a Mayday call over VHF radio or activating a personal locator beacon — “added some delay, however short, in the alert of the emergency services”.

The report also found that the casualty was not wearing a personal flotation device (PFD) or lifejacket while operating on an open deck in hazardous conditions.

Following this report, Marine Notice No 07 of 2022 highlights a number of prior notices regarding the correct used of PFDs, the use of VHF radio (also here), fishing vessel safety and the dangers of potting operations (also here), and the importance of weather forecasts and voyage planning (also here).